Wolfsburg’s new player forward Andre Schuerrle waves as he attends his first training session yesterday in Wolfsburg, central Germany.
DPA/Dusseldorf
Wolfsburg underlined their Bundesliga ambitions with Friday’s 4-1 thrashing of champions Bayern Munich, and they have now spent at least the same amount of money on Andre Schuerrle than all other 17 clubs overall in the winter transfer window.
Schuerrle’s transfer from Chelsea was confirmed shortly after the German transfer period ended Monday, and Wolfsburg have reportedly spent some 32 million euros (36.2 million dollars) on the 24-year-old Germany winger.
Having also signed China’s Zhang Xizhe and Belgian goalkeeper Koen Casteels in the period for 1.5 million euros each, the 2009 champions Wolfsburg are by far the biggest Bundesliga spenders.
That is more than half of the 60 million euros the 18 clubs spent on new personnel during the transfer window, bettering the January window record which previously stood at 52 million euros from the 2010-11 season.
The clubs also let around 50 players go, most of them on loan deals.
Wolfsburg spent 10 million euros more on Schuerrle than they did in summer on Belgian Kevin de Bruyne as they reshape their team to mount a challenge on mighty Munich in the future.
Backed by carmakers Volkswagen, Wolfsburg have plenty of resources, but sports director Klaus Allofs said they were in contact with the ruling body UEFA in connection with their Financial Fair Play rule bwefore the Schuerrle move went through.
Allofs also insisted that “nowadays you have to pay this kind of money” - after all, Schuerrle set up Mario Goetze for the World Cup winning goal last year in Brazil - and that “we want to achieve our goals.”
Munich, who still hold the overall German transfer record by spending 40 million euros on Javi Martinez, were hardly involved in the transfer period, signing no one and letting Xherdan Shaqiri and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg go on loan to Inter Milan and Augsburg, respectively.
Given their eight-point lead, Munich had little reason to further bolster their ranks, while there was a little more activity at the wrong end of the Bundesliga table.
New bottom club Borussia Dortmund signed Slovenian Kevin Kampl for 12 million euros from Red Bull Salzburg, second-bottom Stuttgart got holding midfielder Geoffroy Serey Die from basel, and third last SV Hamburg also snapped up a defensive Basel midfielder, Chile’s Marcelo Diaz, for 2 million euros.
Having scored a meagre nine goals in the first half of the season, Hamburg were also happy to welcome Croatian veteran forward Ivica Olic back after six years, for 1.5 million euros from Wolfsburg.
Champions League aspirants Borussia Moenchengladbach were the only club with no activities at all in the transfer window, while Hoffenheim and Hertha Berlin joined Bayern in not signing anyone.
Bundesliga spending in the January window was on par with Spain, according to the the BBC, just below Italy while the English Premier League once again led the way with some 130 million pounds (172 million dollars).